CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 277 km round trip from Vanderbijlpark - roughly 3 h 59 in the saddle. The stops in between: Walter Sisulu Square, Human Rights and back through Walter Sisulu Square. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,650 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Sharpeville is a heavy place, and it should be approached quietly. On 21 March 1960, thousands of people gathered outside the police station to protest against the pass laws, which forced Black South Africans to carry documents controlling where they could live and work. The police opened fire on the crowd, and sixty-nine people were killed, many shot in the back as they fled. The massacre shocked the world, led to the banning of liberation movements in South Africa and hardened international opposition to apartheid.
Read the complete Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station is where the day begins. Next is Walter Sisulu Square.
On 26 June 1955, some three thousand delegates gathered on a dusty open field in Kliptown, one of the oldest settlements of what became Soweto, for the Congress of the People. Police surrounded the meeting on its second day, but not before the crowd had adopted the Freedom Charter, the document that opens with the words that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. Its ideas went on to shape the country's post-apartheid constitution. The field is now Walter Sisulu Square, named after the anti-apartheid leader and mentor of Nelson Mandela, and the charter's clauses are carved into stone around a monument at its centre.
Read the complete Walter Sisulu Square write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Walter Sisulu Square comes up about 57 km into the recorded legs. Next is Human Rights.
Pretoria's Union Buildings stand on Meintjieskop, a low ridge looking over the city, and from the terraced gardens you can see the whole sweep of the South African capital spread out below. The sandstone buildings, with two wings joined by a curved colonnade, were designed by the English architect Herbert Baker and finished in 1913, to house the government of the newly formed Union of South Africa. For decades they were the seat of white minority rule. On 10 May 1994 they became the setting for the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first democratically elected president, and with that the meaning of the place changed.
Read the complete Human Rights write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 136 km into the recorded legs you reach Human Rights. Next is back through Walter Sisulu Square.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Walter Sisulu Square write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Walter Sisulu Square, late in the day. Next is Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station. That is the ride.
Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station → Walter Sisulu Square is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Walter Sisulu Square → Human Rights is 79 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Human Rights → back through Walter Sisulu Square is 78 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Walter Sisulu Square → Sharpeville Massacre Site: police station is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.